Hanussen: The Nazi Rasputin

Rick and Stephen go inside the case of Erik Jan Hanussen — the most famous mentalist in Weimar Berlin, a Jewish entertainer who passed as Danish nobility. He held séances for senior SA officers, loaned money to the men building the Third Reich, and predicted the Reichstag fire one night before it burned.  One month after the fire he seemingly foresaw, his bullet-ridden body was found in a field outside Berlin.

 

The "Hitler's Rasputin" version of the story is the easy one. The real case is stranger: a study in access, leverage, and what happens to useful people when they are no longer useful.

 

Previously referenced in Episode 19 — The Green Dragon Society: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39SLO2D8H3k&t=160s

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